Four Seasons vs. The Seasons
Bob Sanregret
Does any one know the histories behind the development of
Vivaldi's 4 Seasons and Hayden's The Seasons.
I find both works very interesting but have often made the
mistake of talking about one and having my Swiss friend
refer to the other....
Please supply me with more ammunition to discuss with him.
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John
I don't mean to be rude, but why don't people in general with questions such as this go to a *library* rather than post on the net. I'm not trying to say
posting an answer is "beneath" anyone here, but such questions are easily
answered with a browse through any music or even general encyclopedia, and
you can be (relatively) sure what you'll get there is accurate, whereas
someone's posting of "facts" could be erroneous.
John
James C Liu
>Does any one know the histories behind the development of
>Vivaldi's 4 Seasons and Hayden's The Seasons.
>I find both works very interesting but have often made the
>mistake of talking about one and having my Swiss friend
>refer to the other....
>Please supply me with more ammunition to discuss with him.
Artistic compositions based either around the four seasons or the times
of day (and often intermingled) were a reasonably common conceit in what
corresponds to the Baroque and Classical periods. In Rococo and Classical
period art, cycles of paintings based around the times of day are often
used for one of several purposes, including expression of allegories about
the ages of man, studies and/or displays in landscape painting and nuances
of mood and shading to express the different seasons, or as general means
to display one's ability to execute a large and complicated cycle of
works.
Similar impulses seem to drive composition along these lines. Haydn's
6th through 8th symphonies have the common thread of times of day (morning,
noon, and night, in this case), and Vivaldi, Haydn, Tchaikovsky, and
Glazunov (at least) wrote cycles of compositions based around the seasons.
Hope this provides at least one useful round of ammo.
--
/James C.S. Liu, MD "There is always an easy answer to
jl...@world.std.com every human problem - neat, plausible,
Department of Medicine and wrong."
New England Med Ctr, Boston MA -- H. L. Mencken
Lyle Neff
> Similar impulses seem to drive composition along these lines. Haydn's
>6th through 8th symphonies have the common thread of times of day (morning,
>noon, and night, in this case), and Vivaldi, Haydn, Tchaikovsky, and
>Glazunov (at least) wrote cycles of compositions based around the seasons.
Actually, Tchaikovsky's piano cycle was written around "The Months". "The
Seasons" is not the "real" title.
There is a quasi-seasonal aspect to Rimsky-Korsakov's operatic output.
The operas "Snowmaiden" and "Kaschey the Immortal" were designated as
"spring" and "autumnal" fairy-tales, respectively (although the former
takes place mostly during winter-like weather). Furthermore, his
Gogol operas "Christmas Eve" and "May Night" (if one allows for a
little leeway on the latter) present winter and summer coverage.
--
Lyle Neff, ln...@ucs.indiana.edu
David M. Cook
John <zo...@astro.ocis.temple.edu> wrote:
>I don't mean to be rude, but why don't people in general with questions
>such as this go to a *library* rather than post on the net. [...]
I agree. Huge amounts of Usenet traffic could be saved this way. Please
use and support your local public library.
(Well, at least he wasn't asking us to tell him all about Mozart.)
Dave Cook
Bradford Kellogg
In article <-11922309...@livwir.livewire.com>, Bob_Sa...@livewire.com (Bob Sanregret) writes:
|>
|> Does any one know the histories behind the development of
|> Vivaldi's 4 Seasons and Hayden's The Seasons.
|> I find both works very interesting but have often made the
|> mistake of talking about one and having my Swiss friend
|> refer to the other....
|> Please supply me with more ammunition to discuss with him.
Aha, but what about Glazunov's The Seasons? :-)
--
Bradford Kellogg __ _ "There is nothing,
br...@viewlogic.com \_) ( ) absolutely nothing,
_________ \ / \ ________ quite so worth doing
\ \_____\__/___)/ / as simply messing
\ \_ / about in boats."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(_\~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lyle Neff
Bradford Kellogg <br...@kayak.viewlogic.com> wrote:
>Aha, but what about Glazunov's The Seasons? :-)
That might have been already mentioned. But, in any case, with the
advent of Zima and its advertising, it should be "The Zeazons".
;-)
--
Lyle Neff, ln...@ucs.indiana.edu
David Pickering
vs. The Se.. by Lyle Ne...@silver.ucs.ind
> Bradford Kellogg <br...@kayak.viewlogic.com> wrote:
>
> >Aha, but what about Glazunov's The Seasons? :-)
>
> That might have been already mentioned. But, in any case, with the
> advent of Zima and its advertising, it should be "The Zeazons".
For that matter, how about P.D.Q. Bach's "The Seasonings"? ("If you've
got the money honey, I've got the thyme")